Paul Pogba - Juventus player

[Jeffthered]

I hope this doesn't happen. Really do. He is young enough and talented enough to get fit and still be a star. Benzema won Ballon D'or at 34. Griezmann is 32. Paul Pogba is 30.

He remains one of the footballers I would genuinely pay to go and watch, if fit and healthy of course. When he is on his game, he is brilliant. No one quite like him. Not saying he is the best, but he is briiliant. I can remember him playing a friendly for France at Wembley, I think Benzema scored the winner... he p***ed over anyone in that game.

As someone who loves football, I want to see Pogba, Neymar, fit and playing.

 

[DJ Jeff]

I hope this doesn't happen. Really do. He is young enough and talented enough to get fit and still be a star. Benzema won Ballon D'or at 34. Griezmann is 32. Paul Pogba is 30.

He remains one of the footballers I would genuinely pay to go and watch, if fit and healthy of course. When he is on his game, he is brilliant. No one quite like him. Not saying he is the best, but he is briiliant. I can remember him playing a friendly for France at Wembley, I think Benzema scored the winner... he p***ed over anyone in that game.

As someone who loves football, I want to see Pogba, Neymar, fit and playing.

Nah he's finished. He's actually been finished since the 21-22 season. His physicality fell off a cliff from all the injuries and all that was left was a player who can ping a pass but not do much else.

 

[TsuWave]

No nothing in the rules against it. But for a player who may never play professional football again I just found it strange. Especially some of the examples posted since I’ve seen better. It just seemed a bit random

It wasn’t an exercise in “Pogba is better than”. Someone made a compilation of some of his assists for us, I came across it, liked some of the clips and posted them in the player’s thread. I’ve done the same for Neymar previously. Sometimes it’s OK to just share/watch clips of people playing football - outside of all the forum “vs” noise.

 

[Nevilles.Wear.Prada]

Because @TsuWave is obsessed with him

Ahhh .. go on then.

 

[Posh Red]

It wasn’t an exercise in “Pogba is better than”. Someone made a compilation of some of his assists for us, I came across it, liked some of the clips and posted them in the player’s thread. I’ve done the same for Neymar previously. Sometimes it’s OK to just share/watch clips of people playing football - outside of all the forum “vs” noise.

It’s bizarre how much he enrages folk. I’ll never quite understand it.

 

[Juicy Juiced]

It’s bizarre how much he enrages folk. I’ll never quite understand it.

People expected him to be our MF general and meastro for years, but it go all wrong.

Its not that bizarre.

 

[Posh Red]

People expected him to be our MF general and meastro for years, but it go all wrong.

Its not that bizarre.

Someone can’t even post a few video clips of him without an angry mob turning it up. I find it weird, anyway.

 

[afrocentricity]

Yes it's weird, but very redcafe....

Real shame what happened but his attitude was not right

 

[lsd]

I did read an article about him yesterday in Italian and while my Italian isn't great i think the decision on his ban is next week.

It may not be as severe as expected too

 

[arthurka]

I don't understand. He was injured then and then got injured again at Juve (before getting banned anyway). If anything his stint at Juve proves his issues with injuries at United were real?

Don't think so think he has been enjoying days off for years. But who knows glad he isn't our problem anymore.

 

[clarkydaz]

Do you think that it would have ended this way for him if his agent hadn’t passed away?

Raiola was about when he decided to go Juve? its on the pogumentary where he was insulted by 300k a week

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

Do you think that it would have ended this way for him if his agent hadn’t passed away?

If anything, Raiola himself filled Pogba's head with delusion that United's contract to him was an "insult". Without Raiola, Pogba may have accepted that contract from us.

 

[BTG]

For me he's the biggest wasted potential of at least the last 10 years.

When he was right he was as good as any mid fielder. Problem was he only ever seemed to be right once a quarter.

 

[Sir Erik ten Hag]

For me he's the biggest wasted potential of at least the last 10 years.

When he was right he was as good as any mid fielder. Problem was he only ever seemed to be right once a quarter.

Neymar takes the cake for biggest wasted potential, though.

 

[AlexUTD]

He sure showed us huh!

 

[DWelbz19]

Do you think that it would have ended this way for him if his agent hadn’t passed away?

It might have lessened some of the dramatic endings we're seeing right now, but I doubt Raiola would change too much.

Pogba's issue is that his body just went. People [even to this day!] go on about him "hanging out in Dubai" - the reality is in his last 18-24 months here were blighted with lengthy ankle and hamstring issues. He's gone to Juventus and the same has occurred, and now his knee is gone too.

The times he was able to get on the pitch, he wasn't able to do it for a consistent run, but more pertinently the acceleration and drive in his game had deteriorated.

 

[tomaldinho1]

It might have lessened some of the dramatic endings we're seeing right now, but I doubt Raiola would change too much.

Pogba's issue is that his body just went. People [even to this day!] go on about him "hanging out in Dubai" - the reality is in his last 18-24 months here were blighted with lengthy ankle and hamstring issues. He's gone to Juventus and the same has occurred, and now his knee is gone too.

The times he was able to get on the pitch, he wasn't able to do it for a consistent run, but more pertinently the acceleration and drive in his game had deteriorated.

He's a great example of the club hamstringing, pun intended, players. He had hamstring issues at Juve but we rushed him back from multiple injuries and made things worse, then to cap it off, Pogba undertook private training away from the club and injured his hamstring again from overtraining. Because he was a good player, the club were desperate in those times to win any game, we rushed him back for Rochdale once from memory (!) and that desperation has damaged the careers of many United players post SAF. It's not even on the managers because it's always happened, the constant is the medical team who authorize Licha, Tony, Lingard, Rashford, Pogba etc. to come back too early in the complete desperation for points.

 

[DWelbz19]

He's a great example of the club hamstringing, pun intended, players. He had hamstring issues at Juve but we rushed him back from multiple injuries and made things worse, then to cap it off, Pogba undertook private training away from the club and injured his hamstring again from overtraining. Because he was a good player, the club were desperate in those times to win any game, we rushed him back for Rochdale once from memory (!) and that desperation has damaged the careers of many United players post SAF. It's not even on the managers because it's always happened, the constant is the medical team who authorize Licha, Tony, Lingard, Rashford, Pogba etc. to come back too early in the complete desperation for points.

Yep - he played the full game against Rochdale being forced back into fitness. We were forced to pens against Rochdale and he couldn't even take a penalty at the end because his ankle was so swollen - he was then out for 23 matches after that game.

Agreed on the rush back on players -- it must be a widespread problem across clubs, but that era under Ole was quite bad for it. Pogba, Martial (who claimed he couldn't even sprint for a period owing to his injuries), Rashford and Lindelof (back issues), Maguire too I recall.

 

[Perro Caca]

Biggest waste of talent in football history.

 

[clarkydaz]

Yep - he played the full game against Rochdale being forced back into fitness. We were forced to pens against Rochdale and he couldn't even take a penalty at the end because his ankle was so swollen - he was then out for 23 matches after that game.

Agreed on the rush back on players -- it must be a widespread problem across clubs, but that era under Ole was quite bad for it. Pogba, Martial (who claimed he couldn't even sprint for a period owing to his injuries), Rashford and Lindelof (back issues), Maguire too I recall.

And Ole was supposed to be a nice guy. he really screwed players up

 

[DWelbz19]

And Ole was supposed to be a nice guy. he really screwed players up

Hate to dig up old wounds but I think we ended up in a situation where Ole couldn’t trust any of his squad players (initially down to quality and then after down to the fact that he lost a few of them from a trust perspective) so he was so reliant on his starting XI players and basically ran a few into the ground or pushed them back early.

 

[Chip]

Biggest waste of talent in football history.

Nah, he won a World Cup and a Scudetto, and got to a EURO and CL final playing a big part in all + other trophies. Underwhelming, yes. But biggest waste? Not even close.

Now, Ravel Morrison on the other hand...

 

[Bobski]

The drug thing makes me wonder who Pogba has pissed off to get popped. Maybe far too cynical but I had pretty much assumed that most top leagues were all on some sort of program, to aid recovery if nothing else. Juve have a a pretty dubious history there as well.

 

[Hugh Jass]

He just needed a Kante to get the best out of him. We all need a Kante from time to time.

 

[Stadjer]

And Ole was supposed to be a nice guy. he really screwed players up

Doesnt mean Ole isnt a nice guy. I imagine that when you like the manager and that managers says he needs you, and ask you to play through injury that you are more willing to do so than when you dont like the manager.

 

[CM]

And Ole was supposed to be a nice guy. he really screwed players up

Pretty sure I heard one of The Athletic journalists (Carl Anka maybe?) on a podcast saying Mourinho did away with a lot of the injury prevention data we used at the time and implied we paid the price for him doing that for some time afterwards as well. His point was in relation to Martial but if that's true it's feasible Solskjaer was unwittingly pushing the players beyond their limits.

 

[clarkydaz]

Pretty sure I heard one of The Athletic journalists (Carl Anka maybe?) on a podcast saying Mourinho did away with a lot of the injury prevention data we used at the time and implied we paid the price for him doing that for some time afterwards as well. His point was in relation to Martial but if that's true it's feasible Solskjaer was unwittingly pushing the players beyond their limits.

His insistence on playing Rashford with a back fracture was obscene, at times he could barely walk straight. Ole got a lot of flak for the Pogba Rochdale game, like you need Pogba to beat Rochdale at home

 

[CM]

His insistence on playing Rashford with a back fracture was obscene, at times he could barely walk straight. Ole got a lot of flak for the Pogba Rochdale game, like you need Pogba to beat Rochdale at home

I don't really remember the Rashford one well enough but I do agree on Pogba.

It doesn't absolve him of all blame, obviously it was daft to risk Pogba in that instance. I just think it's more plausible that Solskjaer caused some of these injuries through ignorance rather than doing it with any kind of malice, but that's mostly based on feeling. With Mourinho it felt different, I remember he got Smalling to play through when his toe was broken in two places.

 

[SAFMUTD]

If not by that world cup he wouldnt have anything to write home for respective to his talent. He had everything the modern midfield wanted, the phyisicallity, the talent, the intangibles he didn't had a mediocre career but in retrospective I think he had everything to be one of the greatest midfielders of his generation at least and he felt terribly short.

 

[SAFMUTD]

I don't really remember the Rashford one well enough but I do agree on Pogba.

It doesn't absolve him of all blame, obviously it was daft to risk Pogba in that instance. I just think it's more plausible that Solskjaer caused some of these injuries through ignorance rather than doing it with any kind of malice, but that's mostly based on feeling. With Mourinho it felt different, I remember he got Smalling to play through when his toe was broken in two places.

Mourinho was doing it to prove the point that he didnt had a good enough squad that was clear he was trying to show everyone how limited our squad was, Ole on the other hand simply overplayed them to the point he broke them. Specially Martial it seems he never recovered from that, after that spell he's been injured more often than not.

 

[kleberson_]

So according to swedish (reporting italian news) news, Pogba is banned for 4-years. What a fall from grace and career ending for sure.

Edit: Didn't see other thread about it, ill crawl back to my space

 

[Krakenzero]

What a strange career he's had. Won an awful lot, but still somehow not even close to what was expected him to. Was the most expensive transfer in history at some point, yet still managed to run his contract down and become a free transfer twice. Loved and hated at the same time due to both great stats/eye test/potential and effort/commitment/controversy issues. I particularly think he's overrated, nevertheless it's undeniable that his last couple of years have been a nightmare.

 

[Ali Dia]

Imagine him with a whole team of world class players doing all the work for him? He’d be class!

 

[That_Bloke]

One of the legendary "what ifs" to add to the list. I still have vivid memories of him tearing it up with a Juventus shirt and thought this guy would be one of the best midfielders ever.

In terms of worst career choices, he must be up with the top 10.